Here's another shot of the proboscis monkeys we were talking about on the other post. Just look at the nose and his other accessoiries.
Hey dude, what are you looking at?
Whoops, forgot to talk about the actual jungle trek in the previous post. When we arrived at the oxbow lake, we cruised around a little and got ashore to do a small jungle trek during the day. Now this was exciting. We both bought "leech" socks the night before (cotton socks that come up to your knee to prevent leeches to cling themselves on to you and force you to "give" blood) so that was already a signal. It had rained the night before and everything was very muddy (almost like clay). We wandered through the jungle at a snail's pace, carefully watching where we put our hands and feets (and even our heads) to avoid getting bit, stung, or worse by some jungle resident. We trudged on for an hour, running into mostly insects and leeches, because most bigger-sized animals are either asleep, camouflaged, or long gone before we even came close. It must quite a terrifying experience to be lost in the jungle because you can only move very slow, there's no way to orientate yourself, and you don't know what's watching you. Luckily, our guide pointed out a tree that the locals use when you need help: you just bash it with a big piece of wood and the tree resonates a deep bass drum that can carry up to three kilometers further. However, a stay in this part of the jungle wasn't part our itinerary.
That night, we also did a short trek through the deep, dark, and weird-sounding jungle. Armed with only our ANWB headlights, we snooped around for about 45 minutes. again warned not to touch anything and look out for those damn leeches. The jungle was pitch black, but the path was slightly better and we got to see some nice insects but again no jungle wldlife. But that was actually a thing to be happy about because that particular jungle is home to a certain type of leopard that sees a whole lot better in the dark than we do. However, the night's piece de resistance was actually something very simple: at the end of the track, we were told to turn of our lights and be submerged in a pitch black jungle with the accompanying scary noises (and small eyes everywhere like those of a rather relaxed owl). Again, not a comforting place.
What's that in the friggin trees??!!
Why it's just me... your friendly local lizard
Tiger leech - 100% guaranteed to suck you dry
"Lantarn" bug
To sums things up: we had a blast in the jungle and on the river. We never thought we were going to see so much wildlife, especiallty since the people we spoke too were already ecstatic when they'd seen some proboscics monkeys. Hey wait? Did somebody say proboscis monkey? You know (before we forget, must have been the altitude at Mt. Kinabalu), we have got some amazing footage of these guys jumping out of 10-12 meter high trees right into croc-infested water. The leader decided to check out the other side of the river and just jumped in. Of course, the rest were obliged to follow him. Even mother with their infants jumped in and swam across (the kids clinging onto the mothers's bellies and holding their breath). They all jumped on the lowest tree branch and continued to rampage around the river banks. The "thumping" sound that these monkeys made when they landed flat out on their bellies is amazing and adds to our collection of must-see video. And with those acrobatics and other great experiences in mind we headed out towards our next adventure: climbing the mighty Mt. Kinabalu! So strap on your hiking boots and join the climb.
Here's another shot of the proboscis monkeys we were talking about on the other post. Just look at the nose and his other accessoiries. 
Hey dude, what are you looking at?
Whoops, forgot to talk about the actual jungle trek in the previous post. When we arrived at the oxbow lake, we cruised around a little and got ashore to do a small jungle trek during the day. Now this was exciting. We both bought "leech" socks the night before (cotton socks that come up to your knee to prevent leeches to cling themselves on to you and force you to "give" blood) so that was already a signal. It had rained the night before and everything was very muddy (almost like clay). We wandered through the jungle at a snail's pace, carefully watching where we put our hands and feets (and even our heads) to avoid getting bit, stung, or worse by some jungle resident. We trudged on for an hour, running into mostly insects and leeches, because most bigger-sized animals are either asleep, camouflaged, or long gone before we even came close. It must quite a terrifying experience to be lost in the jungle because you can only move very slow, there's no way to orientate yourself, and you don't know what's watching you. Luckily, our guide pointed out a tree that the locals use when you need help: you just bash it with a big piece of wood and the tree resonates a deep bass drum that can carry up to three kilometers further. However, a stay in this part of the jungle wasn't part our itinerary. 
That night, we also did a short trek through the deep, dark, and weird-sounding jungle. Armed with only our ANWB headlights, we snooped around for about 45 minutes. again warned not to touch anything and look out for those damn leeches. The jungle was pitch black, but the path was slightly better and we got to see some nice insects but again no jungle wldlife. But that was actually a thing to be happy about because that particular jungle is home to a certain type of leopard that sees a whole lot better in the dark than we do. However, the night's piece de resistance was actually something very simple: at the end of the track, we were told to turn of our lights and be submerged in a pitch black jungle with the accompanying scary noises (and small eyes everywhere like those of a rather relaxed owl). Again, not a comforting place. 
What's that in the friggin trees??!!
Why it's just me... your friendly local lizard
Tiger leech - 100% guaranteed to suck you dry
"Lantarn" bug
To sums things up: we had a blast in the jungle and on the river. We never thought we were going to see so much wildlife, especiallty since the people we spoke too were already ecstatic when they'd seen some proboscics monkeys. Hey wait? Did somebody say proboscis monkey? You know (before we forget, must have been the altitude at Mt. Kinabalu), we have got some amazing footage of these guys jumping out of 10-12 meter high trees right into croc-infested water. The leader decided to check out the other side of the river and just jumped in. Of course, the rest were obliged to follow him. Even mother with their infants jumped in and swam across (the kids clinging onto the mothers's bellies and holding their breath). They all jumped on the lowest tree branch and continued to rampage around the river banks. The "thumping" sound that these monkeys made when they landed flat out on their bellies is amazing and adds to our collection of must-see video. And with those acrobatics and other great experiences in mind we headed out towards our next adventure: climbing the mighty Mt. Kinabalu! So strap on your hiking boots and join the climb.
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